A couple of days ago the BBC reported, as did various other sources, that the SPFL was considering pursuing “Rangers” for the fine of £250,000 which was levied upon oldco Rangers by the Lord Nimmo Smith Independent Commission.

The Scottish Professional Football League board is considering pursuing Rangers for £250,000.

The amount relates to a fine levied by an independent Scottish Premier League commission on Rangers Football Club PLC’s (RFC PLC) use of a tax scheme.

SPFL lawyers examined recovering the money under an agreement that led to the transfer of Rangers’ membership of the Scottish FA going ahead.

Any claim to the company’s liquidators would likely yield a smaller amount.

Liquidators BDO are in the process of examining claims of creditors of RFC PLC.

As such the SPFL board has decided it is reasonable to try to pursue the full amount from The Rangers Football Club Ltd under the terms of the deal known as the Five-Way Agreement, although no timescale has been set as to when to do this.

…

In February, Rangers Football Club PLC was fined £250,000 by the Lord Nimmo Smith-chaired SPL commission after it found that payments from its Employee Benefit Trust scheme were not disclosed to the football authorities.

The commission found that the company’s management did not take professional advice on disclosing the payments.

The findings also stated that the current owners should not be held responsible for any breaches made by the previous company.

The reaction from Rangers fan sites has been universally negative to this news, as one would expect. This is part, apparently, of the “vendetta” that the football authorities, under the malign influence of Peter Lawwell, has mounted against Rangers.

Amongst the reactions I have read comments from Rangers-supporting bloggers that the fine has “nothing to do with us”; that it would be “illegal” to pursue Rangers for the fine; that the fine came about at a hearing where “Rangers” were cleared; that the Nimmo Smith Commission found that there was no “sporting advantage” gained by Rangers; and that Rangers should refuse to pay.

All of the above comments are, with respect to those who propose them, nonsense.

First of all, in terms of the “that has nothing to do with us” argument, we see the schizophrenic way in which, when it suits fans of Rangers, the fine distinctions between club and company seem to be appreciated. Rangers fans maintain universally that there is one Rangers, which is, was and is to come. They must accept that the club is owned by a new company, but the distinction between club and company is made a great deal of. But from the fan perspective, if it is all the same Rangers, can they absolve their team from guilt based upon the owner being someone they do not like? It seems so.

Secondly there is the cry, repeated from last summer when the registration embargo was imposed, that it was “illegal” for the football authorities to impose the penalty because of the previous disciplinary decision. This too is an incorrect analysis. What the SPFL is looking to do now is the same as the SFA did regarding registrations – not to impose a penalty ruled out by the courts or Disciplinary body, but rather to enforce a condition of membership which was AGREED by the new owner.

Of course if the fans can abdicate responsibility by saying that the club is not to blame for what its owners do, then they can try also to disown the agreement reached by the Green ownership which agreed terms to be allowed to play football. Sevco Scotland Ltd (now Rangers Football Club Ltd) agreed to pay all of oldco’s “football debts”. A fine payable to the football authorities by oldco, being the club owner and responsible for all the operations of the club, must be a football debt. How can it be anything else?

Fans of Rangers complain about SFA “blackmail” but the blackmail was not very good, was it! After all, the supposed goal of title stripping was not achieved, but a “Rangers” still took the field in 2012-2013.

Thirdly, was “Rangers” cleared? Of course not – it was found guilty – that is why a fine was imposed! This argument seems similar to that which suggests that somehow Dave King’s acceptance of liability under criminal charges and payment of huge fines and penalties was NOT the same as criminal convictions.

A fine of £250,000 is not meant to be loose change. It reflected the Nimmo Smith Commission view that there had been a long-standing and deliberate policy of failing to declare all payments to players to the football authorities.

What about “sporting advantage”? It is true that the Nimmo Smith crew did not find that there had been any sporting advantage gained. But this was NOT based on a full analysis of all of the evidence and a determination that there had not been an attempt to gain advantage. Instead the verdict was that the “prosecution” had failed to prove that there was an advantage gained – because the prosecution did not lead any evidence to allow the Commission to decide if there was any advantage.

Equally the Commission did not determine if there was the intention to gain advantage. Quite frankly that must have been the intention! Whether it was within the rules or not, it must have been an attempt to gain “sporting advantage” – making players happier or saving the team money generally gives the team advantage.

And then we come to whether or not Rangers should refuse to pay.

If it did then that would appear to be a clear flouting of the deal which gave newco membership of the SFA. In the absence of a published version of the 5-way agreement we can only surmise the exact terms of the deal. However, if there is a failure to meet any of the conditions, might this allow the SPFL to seek to withdraw membership? After all, if one party to a contract breaks an agreement the other can, in some circumstances, tear it up.

There is of course no way that the football authorities will try to kick Rangers out for refusing to pay, but in theory it could.

More directly the SPFL would formally demand payment. If Rangers refuse to pay then what happens?

The SPFL has two choices.

It can proceed through the normal football channels and leave it to Rangers to go to court to prevent action being taken against it.

Or it can raise a civil action for payment, similar to the one presently proceeding in connection with Mr Whyte and the fine he did not pay.

(As a side issue, the fine imposed on Mr Whyte as an official of “Rangers” is payable by the club/team if he does not pay – the SFA might be pursuing Mr Whyte so that it can say that it has tried, and that it has no choice but to pursue that penalty too – and if it did, then one can only imagine the anguish from Ibrox way!)

If it goes into a civil court, we can put it on the back burner for a year or more …

And what about the bearing of this on the old club v new club argument?

At first sight, it has no bearing at all! The SPFL does not need to tread in the mess which is that argument. If they refer, as they do, to the companies involved, rather than the nebulous entity which is a football “club”, then they are taking no part in the discussion. It is evidence to support neither contention.

But at the bottom line?

The SPFL is owned a quarter of a million pounds in a fine which is payable by one of its members. If the SPFL refuses to pursue the fine then it gives, I would suggest, members carte blanche to ignore disciplinary penalties. This is why football penalties stick to the “clubs”. Otherwise, if an evil football club owner wanted to engage in extreme behaviour, then, if caught, they could simply sell the club to someone else and the new owner could argue that the cheating of the previous owner was nothing to do with him, even if it was proven to have advantaged the football team.

It would be interesting to see if any clubs tried to push the SPFL to chase this amount, if it decides not to do so – and would that member be prepared to accept the enmity which would come from Rangers for having the temerity to urge pursuit of the mighty Rangers.

423 responses to “Myths and Legends – the SPFL and the £250k Fine of “Rangers””

just reading the comments there on youtube from the loyal were moving to wales vid a just had to share this with yous

“the name scot comes from (scotti) an irish tribe that colonised scotland so technically to call you’re self scottish is to call you’re self irish, people have crossing between the two country’s over the water vice versa throughout history so feel i am part of something much older, proud to be scottish and irish,”
lol does this this mean the huns are irish to like us scots irish lol dont be depressed cam and all our resident sevcoians you are who u are lol

Mick
cam would probably say his genes pre-date the Scots moving into Argyll. He will claim he is pictish – the people who were living in hovels at Skara Brae while the ancient Egyptian civilisation was building villas with underfloor heating and early plasma TVs

@Gortnamona the Gimp
Never noticed my wife going out with Bernstein, or Woodward.
Or do you mean the blogger – never employed by any serious publication, and with no journalism qualifications- with issues resident in Donegal?
Whose wife left him?

@hector
Evening hector, I say old boy it must be chilly on the croft this night?
I have a vision of the boy David in his secret bunker (spare room) playing soldiers by himself, I wonder if he is a genital, corporal or a sergeant in his imaginary world war III?
Here comes David now, in his Tank…” hello David”….” vroom vroom ” 🙂
” David time for bed now, go to the toilet & brush your tooth first” 🙂

@Monti
You have LOTS of visions, like living on the Falklands and being an IRA Volunteer.
Unfortunately for you, like the one above, none of them bear any resemblance to reality.
What a puerile fanny.
And shitebag– you said certain people would not walk down your street.
Care to name it and put it to the test?

monti has a nice life surrounded by love and kindess from his brothers and sisters he doesent clean shit although he would via a act of empathy to help the lame as we are taught that at school were you taught not to clean shit ?you could not tie montis shoe laces david monti has reduced you to being a troll job well done monti brother friend and cyber comrade

your trolling monti stalking him daily montis not scum hes 1 of the nicest guys on here you have a hatred for him as hes scots irish your a racist and a troll go crawl back under your camoflage quilt as your mum will get angry your out your room

@mick
Monti is scum
He is not Scots-Irish, you do not comprehend what the words mean
I am not a racist- kindly point out 1 racist post- you seem a bit of a bigot yourself going by your posts
You are illiterate, learn basic English

@Monti
89 people agreed with me before.
Nothing at all wrong with you except that you praise terrorists, mock deceased soldiers, incite suicide, are a disgusting bigot, lie through your teeth , hate your own country but still live here, love another country but wont live there, are homophobic, support fascists rather than your own people whilst hiding behind a keyboard, and are a coward.
What a rocket

@ david
Will you try not to be such an arsehole with your comments, lighten up a bit ffs. If you’re going to criticise somebody about their spelling then at least use some punctuation in your own comments.
You claimed in a previous post that you weren’t a Sevco supporter, if this is true then you’ll have no problem admitting that old Rangers are dead and burried?

The Rangers supporters have failed dismally to reach the 100,000 E Petition signature level to have the HMRC handling of their investigation into Rangers and alleged leaks from Hector a contender for a debate in the House of Commons.

The Rangers petition closed today with only a paltry 41,290 signatures from their 500 million claimed worldwide support. This was despite a massive effort by posters on virtually every Rangers website, bloggers and even Rangers players tweeting to urge the fans to sign the online petition after it was officially backed by the club.

When the petition started last November it quickly attracted signatures and within weeks was surging towards its 100,000 target with +35K Signatures in just a few weeks and it looked as though the 100K target would soon be reached.

However by December the House of Commons became aware of various methods which were being used to inflate the signature count and which were being promoted on certain Rangers websites.

They included using anonymiser and duplicate email accounts letting Bears vote more than once which isn’t allowed. Children’s names were also being used and those of friends and relatives often without their knowledge. Bizarrely even the names of pets were being submitted.

After investigating the various abuses which were being trumpeted and encouraged on some Rangers fan sites it would appear that the flood of signatures flowed to an absolute trickle with only a few thousand being added from mid December 2013 until the petition closed today.

It really is quite an eye-opener as to what the core support of Rangers might actually be compared to the much bruited fantasy 500,000.

Of course perhaps it was a PR ploy that just didn’t fly. In the final analysis it’s another indicator of a curious mentality which appears to think that it is OK to counter alleged breaches of the law by committing the same offence.

@Eco, Welcome home sir. We kept your seat warm and fended the bigots from this good catholic stronghold. We think Cam crawled under the door so he’s allowed in but only for his ability to crawl even lower that a snakes belly. A feat never matched in here by us TIMS so we looked on with glee.
We await your outpourings sir, as you have an uncanny knack of riling the opposition

@ecojon hi ecojon hope your well and enjoying the winter best wishes to you
Official E-Petition – Get Parliament to debate HMRC’s leaks

Started by Ricky_ , 22 Nov 2012

last comment on thread lol
Its obvious we are not going to get this petition through, im a member or Change.Org which is a epetition site and the petitions on there regularly get responses and even results with less signiture than our one, why we have not even had any response at all i dont know, probably because this is a goverment site and they really wont want a scandal involving HMRC.

Dear Jack.
In reply to your letter of complaint surrounding the CFC AGM, it is with the deepest regret that I am unable to help.
Mr Lawell was in a particularly jovial mood when I approached him seeking redress on you behalf. As Vincent’s rear quarters were taking a sound thrashing from Mr Lawells slipper, I thought I had chosen my moment well.
However to my utter astonishment, he merely turned and said, “Your next ya wee bawbag!”
I fear we are losing control of the sixth floor, and Mr Lawell is gaining support and that he is indeed, “The Daddy”.
I am afraid that Mr Lawell has the drop on all of our former servants, and Sir David has threatened to call in my loan. Apparently an undercover Fenian group, known as “The Bampots of Arty” can infiltrate even our most powerful Derry’s Firewalls and providing him with our darkest secrets.
Even the mastered race are of little use, as some of them will be mastered no more. They are few in numbers, but unfortunately for us, itis the educated slaves which are fanning the flames of dissent.
What are we to do Jack? I have Sir David threatening to call in my loan, The Dungcaster and Stewart are both terrified of Mr Lawell, who has told them Armageddon and civil unrest will not happen on his watch. Worse still, they believe him that we are the peepel no more. Did I mention Sir David has threatened to call in my loan,?
I fear our only hope of survival may be unconditional surrender. Would you be so kind as to pen a statement for me to issue through our agents to buy us some time. We must move swiftly.
I am sure you will agree I have been a loyal servant, and as a personal favour to me, could you exert some influence on Sir David. He has threatened to call in my loan.
,yours loyally, but mortally wounded.
Campbell.

ps.
Word is reaching me that agent Cam has been turned. He has went native, but fortunately not commando. I fear for his soul.
In the lodge he was overheard to say he was about to visit the usurper site of McConville. He called the site home.
He was a brave man, but he is lost to us now. I feel for poor Morag.
CO.

Fear not for Morag agent barca,I’m all over it.
I have had the plans for “Operation Ghirls’ Night” ready to go for ages.
Like Maya, the sensible teacher meerkat,I was once the greatest spy in all Russia,I know what I’m doing 🙂
Morag will be spirited out of cam towers and fully integrated into the sisterhood of Timesses,though I wish that bloody Heidi would get out of my way and stick to her ledgers and preparation for that tax appeal thingy that’s she’s all excited about..Between you and me barca,she’s not a field agent material,tho she does covet the leather catsuit. ( steady bhoys 🙂 )

Isn’t it good to have Comrade Mick back on board. Mick, you are a breath of fresh air in here and your contributions are immeasurable. Monti’s says give our regards to our brothers in Kilburn but please don’t forget the comrades in Cricklewood. All comrades together. HAIL HAIL

@tykebhoy
Does it not just get murkier and murkier by the day? This for me is akin too ‘spivs 2’. Those deluded nutters who support sevco on this blog must be as sick as C**k, not forgetting the 101 opinions of the 102 social clubs.

How is an easy way to sum-up without being obtuse?

Cf*Ked over, again, no where to hide, no club as they know it, done, dusted, spit roasted by the spivs, ‘we took one hell of a beating’, am so glad guy’s like you, eco and Bill are constantly watching out for the spivs, what a joy, what a joy.

@tyke
cam won’t thank you for this, he won’t need milk for his corn flakes in the morning, regurgitation of last night’s tea will do the trick.

I think the aim here is to sicken the season ticket holders so much that they will walk away and then whomever wants it (huns 3) can lease the remnants. Convinced of that now. Just one last hurdle, craigy whyte, then it’s over.

I could be wrong but I don’t think there is any implication that any of the new owners of the shares already held shares, just that whether they did or not the new additions didn’t take any of them to a 3% holding. I’m also assuming that the 3% is significant in that it would require more disclosure to the exchange of who now held 3%.

Again not being an expert I can’t say for sure but surely the monies involved must have at least “bed and breakfasted” with Beuaforts. If so under anti money laundering regs Beaufort will have to at least have done some due diligence on the money being squeaky clean otherwise the FSA would be on their case.

Finally from memory Leeds United were forced by the FL to become transparent on who their off-shore backers were before they were allowed to be promoted from League1 to the championship. I think it was mainly because they were then feasibly just a season away from the EPL. The backers being the ones that took over after the insolvency event sparked immediately after Leeds relegation to League1 was mathematically confirmed. Mibbe the SPFL should be demanding the same clarity the Football League required.

a person who is employed to ensure that a company does not contravene any statutes or regulations which apply to its activities.
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phoenix company
Web definitions

A phoenix company is a commercial entity which has emerged from the collapse of another through insolvency. The new company is set up to trade in the same or similar trading activities as the former, and is able to present the appearance of “business as usual” to its customers.
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sporting
adjective

fair and generous in one’s behaviour or treatment of others, especially in a contest.
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incompatible
adjective

(of two things) so different in nature as to be incapable of coexisting.

Worthington/Whyte said they were raising capital to fight the huns on behalf of 5088. Did they own some or all of these shares and this was the pay off by whyte to worthington for his misdemeanor in taking 3mill of their retirement fund money for his buy-out?

It makes sense that it was the pay off and others have moved in, confidant that there are no more fights to be fought. Think; why would you invest if there was an ownership issue hanging over what you wished to invest in?

However if you pay off the rat who may sink your ship, then maybe your free to invest without fear and of the authorities finding out that the cunt you bought out, may just have had your licence to play football withdrawn. sorry Maggie, c word.

“The Compliance Officer has informed both clubs that there is no actionable breach of the rules”
“Nonetheless, I am compelled to convey my disappointment”

“In this regard both the comments made*,( that did not break any rules*) and the subsequent time, effort and resource imposed on our Compliance Officer to deal with the complaint, were wholly unnecessary.”
============================================

so Celtic’s CEO said and did nothing wrong, yet Sevco complained,
it was therefore only SEVCO that caused the subsequent time, effort and resource used, to deal with the frivolous complaint, as been wholly unnecessary,
Sevco should be billed for this waste of time and resources.

CO has remained mute throughout Sevco’s threats, and boycotts,
yet he manages at last to speak out about his disappointment , even though CFC had no case to answer.

@hector
Morning hector, ’twas a cold night for me in the shop door way last night, only the sleeping blanket & my polystyrene cup for company, certainly cheaper than a night in the Balmoral though.
The boy David, fresh from a spare room WW III campaign, is still trying to find my address, with veiled threats of retribution.
I’m sure there’s laws against that type of behaviour, maybe Cam could post up the potential porridge time for threatening people on line.
With all these threats from David I’m not getting a good nights sleep just now 🙂
Anyway hector, hopefully another 3 points against the sheep sheerers of the north today & onto Champions league duty v Milan on Tuesday.

@Monti Good morning you lying no good shitebag bigot. A bit of a bile fest last night on here with most of the unpleasantness coming from our resident Lanark Thistle supporter. A few weeks ago Maggie tried to give him some friendly advice and we saw how that turned out. Watch your back as I am sure there are a few goat worriers working at GCHQ and the brotherhood may be having you watched. From his posts it does look like our squeaky little pal wears an apron in his spare time.

I see none of the Huns want to step up to the plate & answer the question I posed last night, the question being : If the the the rangers won ( hahahaha ) this seasons Scottish cup, why would they not be allowed to compete in Europe next season?
It’s only a question Mick, they are all looking at each other to see who is going to answer, Cam might attempt it but it won’t be a straight answer, because like the rest of them he is scared of the answer!

Rangers man CO breaks cover to spout the Sevco line, PL no case to answer,
why is CO now so desperate to be heard,
Sevco have bullied and boycotted to the detriment of Scottish football since Green bought the assets of a failed football club,
now he pipes up,
was he Scared his EBT loan would be called in ?

Coatbrig, so we actually now know that he is alive and well. I think he’s been told to keep his head down and we will eventually go away. Well Campbell, we ain’t going anywhere and everytime you think your off the hook, the BHOYS will be there remembering you, how tainted you are.
It’s only going to get worse until we get justice.

The question asked before sevco were invited into our Football League was
“Has the SFA have equitable for our game?” Ogilvies` response
” This is not the time or place”
I guess some bodies else’s wife will be handing Celtic the SPFL League Championship Trophy? She better have a nice backside for our worlds` first.

You have to hand it to old Wiley E Coyote. He plays the Sevconians like a fiddle. You see what he did? He comes out with the Rory Bremner quip and ‘the board’ complain to their man Campbell Ogilivie (by the way has he paid back his ‘loan’ to Oldco yet? ). Now Campbell can only take Wiley to task by showing him the error of his ways, by showing him that Sevco are no mere tribute act. But he can’t, can he? So, no action to be taken against our Peter. What a guy. What a brain. I put it down to his schooling.

The whole thing was a complete waste of every bodies time and has not done anything to improve the game. Rangers fault no doubt. But CO does pointedly refer to the two clubs as “our oldest rivals” so he is claiming the history continues, as you would expect of him as an ex Rangers man.

Conflicted Campbell of the poor credit rating is clearly rattled. Otherwise he would stiil be in his doomsday shelter. He was “called upon” and this was his best shot. They are running scared!
Big Peter has shown the way forward, and I hope to hear more subtle nuances from him. Things like “I recall the LAST EVER O** F*** game” dropped into statements, Congratulations on the NEW TEAMS success.
The tribute act thought if they kept up the denial, we would tire of correcting them. Let’s see who tires now. Sevco firing their unenforceable complaints into Hampden, Or The corrupted one rising from his bunker to say there is nothing he can do!
The dug has seen the rabbit, and the rabbit has seen his own arse. Unleash the hounds Peter. The rabbits are panicked in open ground and running into each other. Keep it subtle Peter, but keep the headlights on.
Hector, load up your .22 and sharpen your gutting knife. There is more than onr way to skin a rabbit and fill your freezer.
Big Peters method is best!

murray may have thrown in the towel with regards to getting on the sevco board. Amid all the self congratulations and back slapping down Govan way 154,691 sevco shares were bought and 2,501 were sold on the stock exchange. The most telling trade was the sale of a single share amid all this feel good buying. Could this be good looking Paul liquidating his position and like so many before him walking away? He is too photogenic and not nearly fat enough to be taken seriously as a sevco board member. Wee Stockbridge may find his days numbered unless he can pack on a few kilos.

@lex Afternoon Lex I am not claiming to be an oil painting but whatever my looks they don’t detract from my powers of observation and you have to admit looking at Willie Vass photos of the directors box at Ibrox is enough to scare the weans and put the hens off the lay. Some of that lot could curdle milk at 20 paces. Anyway nice to see you hale and hearty and back in the fray. Take care.

Portpower,
How is the weather in oz, it’s coming down in buckets here.

Ah was just wondering like, – when ah wis in ma early thirties chemical drugs such as LSD were banned, so ah think ah ken whir yer comin frae most of the time but at other times, dae ye use a random word generator?

WHEN IS A CRIME NOT A CRIME? When it’s been committed by someone in the same party,club etc, as you, of course !
Take as an example statements from members of Partido Popular (PP), this week over here in Spain. Let’s start with Alfonso Rus. Not just any old member of the PP, but the president of Castellon Province, no less.
Sr Rus said that he was supporting the petition to win a government pardon for former PP mayor of Torrevieja Pedro Hernandez Mateo who has been sentenced to three years in prison for perverting the course of justice and forging public documents.
According to Sr Rus, Hernandez Mateo ” is not a criminal”, “Personally I would like him to be handed a pardon” said Sr Rus.
Following questions from journalists, Sr Rus explained himself further.
“When you have a relationship with a person and you like them, and you understand that this is not right, then each person can do as they choose” he stated, just as long as that is clear it doesn’t matter what the judiciary says, if someone is a ” bloody nice bloke” then they shouldn’t have to go to prison.
Sr Alfonso Rus was not the only top PP politician to sign the petition, in fact at the time of going to press, 45 out of 54 council members had joined the pardon bandwagon, it was the ex-mayor’s family that started up the petition.
This was done in the in the parliament debating chamber- that cradle of democracy and bedrock of society, however what it boils down to is that a high-profile politician has been found guilty of a “masterpiece of dishonesty”, with the judges finding him that his actions – which ended with a multi – million – euro public contract being handed to the company of the ex-mayor’s choice ( and this company then running this lucrative rubbish collection contract for nine years and counting ) were worthy of jail.
But according to a number of influential members of the regional PP council, these are not real crimes.
This, in my opinion , is quite worrying.

Why? have I posted on this site, because it reminds me of another club.

I noticed one of your Sevco word plays was White Castle, you weren’t referring to that now defunct hamburger chain famous for their sliders were you? The hamburgers you could only eat when you were bevied and were small enough to slide down yer gullet without being beaten into?

If you were bringing the great Rangers up in connection with that White Castle ah will have to complain and ask for your post to be deleted. That is the lowest yet.